REUTERS ||
The coronavirus pandemic reached a grim new milestone in the United States on Friday with the nation’s cumulative death toll from COVID-19 surpassing 900,000.
The latest tally marks an increase of more than 100,000 U.S. COVID-19 fatalities since Dec. 12, coinciding with a surge of infections and hospitalizations driven by the highly contagious Omicron variant of the virus.
Preliminary evidence has shown that Omicron, while far more infectious, generally causes less severe illness than earlier iterations of the virus, such as Delta. But the sheer volume of Omicron cases fueled a surge in hospitalizations that has strained many U.S. healthcare systems to their limits in recent weeks.
Experts have said the bulk of Omicron patients requiring hospitalization were unvaccinated individuals and people with other underlying chronic health conditions.
Data also suggests that Omicron may have hit the United States harder than other countries with younger overall populations, such as in Africa.
As of Friday, according to Reuters’ running tally of state-reported data, the total number of American lives lost to COVID-19 since the first U.S. cases were detected in early 2020 has reached at least 904,228, more than the entire population of South Dakota.
U.S. President Joe Biden, whose first year in office has been dogged by a pandemic that has proven more implacable than was expected – due in part to many Americans’ hesitancy to get vaccinated – used the occasion to urge greater vaccine uptake.
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